Tuesday, December 22, 2009

David and the Gargantuan and Growing List of Atlantic Yards Opponents

We just wrote about how Crain’s departing New York Business editorial director Greg David wanted to “personalize” the mega-issues and mega-destruction associated with the proposed Atlantic Yards mega-monopoly. The way he irresponsibly whittled it down was that someone named Daniel Goldstein was the sole personage responsible for holding up the arrival in Brooklyn of an unsigned basketball superstar named LeBron James.

This is the way Atlantic Yards Report wrote up what Mr. David had to say on WNYC’s Financial 411 about Mr. Goldstein and why he would have to “pack his bags” given that Bruce Ratner had been able to find buyers for the bonds he is hoping to issue (Mr. David’s words are those in quotes, the rest is AYR commentary):

“ . . . So Daniel Goldstein, the person who's been holding out against it, had better start packing his bags," David responded, with no small satisfaction in his voice. "Cause this means that Ratner has the money to go ahead with the project. They're going to go ahead no matter how many more lawsuits Goldstein files."

Um, Goldstein isn't the only property owner and tenant resisting eminent domain. He may be the most visible but the Atlantic Yards fight wouldn't have lasted six years and counting if it were just one guy.

Mr. Goldstein is not by any means the only member of a significant and ever-growing opposition to the project. More and more it seems that the only ones who don’t oppose the project are those on the payroll of developer/subsidy collector Forest City Ratner, and we include some of our least favorite politicians in that reckoning. The other day we wrote a post about how using eminent domain abuse to pile benefits on political favorites (like Pfizer in New London, Connecticut or Forest City Ratner in Brooklyn) is prone to backfire resulting in blighted wastelands. When we did, we noted the long list of eminent domain perpetrators (politicians included) who had exited, some of them ignominiously, from that infamous Connecticut Kelo situation and, similarly, from our own Atlantic Yards fiasco in New York. When we provided those lists of the “not-so-dear departed” we wrote:

Meanwhile, the list of those who are plaintiff parties in lawsuits against Atlantic Yards is an ever-growing one. In particular, we note that more and more politicians have been added to it. If this post wasn’t already more than long enough we would start listing the entire universe of plaintiffs. (The growing list of Atlantic Yards political adversaries also sounds a bit like the “afterward” of the Pfizer Kelo debacle.”)

This post will supply what we did not supply in that post, a starting list of the plaintiffs, groups and individuals who have mobilized to oppose the horrific and tragically corrupt Atlantic Yards megadevelopment.

We should begin by observing a couple of things. First, while Mr. David was touting LeBron James as a reason to go forward with Atlantic Yards, (“because the play . . . is to get LeBron James to come to Brooklyn"), Mr. David might find, as we pointed out, that LeBron James is amongst those with reasons to oppose Atlantic Yards. Second, as Atlantic Yards Report and No Land Grab reported, Mr. David’s own daughter is apparently already in the ranks of those opposing eminent domain abuse. Mr. David may have forgotten, but by his own admission, her opposition almost swung him over to eminent domain abuse opposition as well.

Now let us get on to our list of the list. There is some repetition in the list but Mr. Goldstein’s name appears only once. Since the list begins with the plaintiffs in the eminent domain lawsuit it necessarily begins with the names of individuals but as you read through it you will see the astounding number of groups that are represented, reflecting the neighborhood and broader concerned communities. The list is long that it is easy to forget that there are many others who oppose these abuses as well. For instance, we almost forgot to mention that Noticing New York can also be added to the list of those firmly opposing Atlantic Yards.

Here then is the list that Greg David whittled down to just Mr. Goldstein:

One day we could add Greg David’s own name to the list if his daughter talks some sense into him. Maybe it would help for him to read the Appellate Division’s decision holding against Columbia University’s abuse of eminent domain to take over West Harlem. Mr. David says he has read it but we don’t believe him. The reasoning of the judges holding in the Columbia case against the same government agency-perpetrators using the same pretexts they’ve used with Atlantic Yards: “the blight designation in the instant case is mere sophistry. It was utilized by ESDC years after the scheme was hatched to justify the employment of eminent domain but this project has always primarily concerned a massive capital project for Columbia.”

About Me

NOTICING NEW YORK & NATIONAL NOTICE are both independent entities managed by Michael D. D. White of Hop-Skip Enterprises. Michael D. D. White is an attorney, urban planner and former government public finance and development official. *** Noticing New York covers New York development and associated politics. National Notice covers national policy and economic issues *** Contact: MichaelDDWhite(at)gmail.com